In the first chapter of “Switch, How to Change When Change is Hard,” by Chip & Dan Heath, is a story told about researchers who brought in participants for a study.  They had dishes of chocolates and dishes of radishes.  Group one was to eat chocolates and no radishes.  Group two was to eat radishes and no chocolates.  They then asked each group to attempt to complete a series of puzzles that were unsolvable.  The chocolate eaters attempted the task for 19 minutes before giving up.  The radish eaters gave up after only 8 minutes.

Hypothesis from the study: Self-control is an exhaustible resource.  It took self-control to not eat the chocolates!!

What are the possible implications for us?  Perhaps we will choose to be careful of who and how we label as “lazy.”  And it affirms that we must practice self-care (self-ful) so that we do not experience burnout.  It also means that to be the most productive employee, we must not work all day, non-stop.  We must have breaks. We must have time when we do not have to practice self-control.

Because self-control is an exhaustible resource, we cannot perform at our best when we are spending our energy on not eating the chocolates (i.e., completing work assignments).  Be aware of when you are fatigued, give yourself a break, and you will be a better employee, employer, spouse, parent, friend.

Please share your thoughts or opinions, I will be blogging on chapter 2 soon!

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Jeff

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